New beginnings

New beginnings

As we start a new year as Americans, I’m also starting a few new things in my life. Some of it I started last month, but I’m counting those as still new enough to include in this post.

I’m actually starting to feel like I’m finally getting used to and flourishing as an adult. I’m a little slow on the uptake being that I’m already 41, but it’s still a good feeling!

In the last month, I’ve started cleaning out clutter and reorganizing my room, creating an art/photography workspace in the basement, working with a financial counselor to get my finances in better shape, and finally getting a combination of medications to really help with my mental illnesses (it’s difficult to find the right combination because you have to try each med and they can take a minimum of 4-6 weeks to really work and then you have to hope you can tolerate the side effects). My room is coming along slowly but surely. I didn’t get much done this past weekend, but I plan on tackling it this coming weekend and trying to work through another section.

The biggest news is that I’m getting a NEW JOB!!! 😀 😀 I’m super, super excited about it. I’m still working at Ann Arbor District Library, but I’ll be taking a position in the Acquisitions/Cataloging department instead of on the public desks. Right now (through the end of July), I’m training during the first half of my day and then after lunch/dinner, I’m working on one of the public desks. August 1st, I will take over in the position. It is a lateral move in the company as far as pay is concerned so I won’t be getting a raise, but it will hopefully mean a lot less stress.

I’m really excited because my concentration in library school was cataloging. While I may not be doing a lot of original cataloging (creating records from scratch), there’s lots of copy cataloging to do (downloading catalog records from reputable sources) and cleaning up records. I’ll also be putting in the orders for items and processing them when we receive them. I’m not the person choosing what gets purchased, I’m just the one making the purchase orders and actually ordering/receiving the materials. 🙂

While I will miss some aspects of working at the public desk, I’m looking forward to having less stress in my life. Working with the public makes me so exhausted that I can’t really do much of anything else. By working in an area that doesn’t have to deal with the public, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to “have a life” outside of work, or at the very least have the energy to enjoy painting ceramics and taking nature walks again!

You are so right on that. I’m thrilled with this new job since it will have cataloging involved and it looks like we may be re-dividing the workload when one of the other acquisition clerks gets back from maternity leave so I’m hoping that provides even more to do so I stay busy in my new job. 🙂

Congrats! And I agree with you – working with the public is taxing. I’ve been self-employed for a decade now so I haven’t had to deal with working with the public in a long time. However, I do volunteer at my local food pantry. For the first few years I worked with folks going through to get their food and a four hour shift just exhausted me. I finally realized that I’m just not that good at working with the public so I’ve started doing data entry behind the scenes and it is SO MUCH BETTER! I do like being with people, but I think it’s the being forced to be “on” during specific hours of the day thing that just doesn’t always mesh well with my introvert / extrovert proclivities on any given day.
Also – So glad you got your meds working well. I know how long that can take and how frustrating it can be – and how freeing it can feel when it finally seems to be balanced.